Pretty things, cats, coffee & taking on too much…

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kitchen

I hesitantly write this post, as on seeing the pictures you may wonder what we were thinking when we bought the Cloud. However, by the time we saw this house, we’d seen quite a few and we realised that décor wasn’t the most important factor in the decision. On a practical note, we also knew that with our small budget, buying a house in pristine condition would mean a massive compromise on space. I’ve watched enough ‘Phil & Kirsty’ to know there’s always going to be a compromise when buying a house, but I’m glad that for the Cloud, space wasn’t it.

Anyone who has viewed a potential home, whether to rent or to buy, will know that each place you visit has it’s own ‘feel’. The aesthetics and layout may contribute to this but to me, a house’s history has a big part to play. I think if people have been happy in a house, it absorbs some of that feeling and it becomes as much a part of the space as the floors and walls. We had walked around houses which ostensibly ticked all the boxes on our (meticulously thought-out!) list but which didn’t ‘pull’ us. Whereas there were others (one in particular) to which we were so drawn despite being them too small/too much work/too long a commute. A house with the right feel can make you reconsider your priorities!

The house was owned by a old spanish gentleman who, on having retired and been widowed, had decided to return to live in Spain. He had lived in this house for over 40 years and though the décor was not to our taste, we could tell the house had been a good home to him and we hoped it would be a good home for us. It needed work (more than we’d planned for) and wasn’t in the area where we had originally began our search but with a lot more space than we expected and the intangible ‘right’ feeling, we decided it was the one for us.

So take a peek inside the Cloud as it was when we first saw it.

Living Room

The living room is a ‘knock-through’, so extends ‘behind’ this photo for about the same distance.

Kitchen

The kitchen was the biggest we’d seen in any house and though a bit old, full of light.

Main Bedroom

I loved the fact this room has two windows!

Back Bedroom

Garden

Teeny, but enough to be getting on with as we’re not very green-fingered.

The house also has a bathroom and a 3rd bedroom of ‘box-room’ proportions. Plenty of room for our little family + 2 cats. As the previous owner was leaving the country, he left most of the furniture you see pictured. This was a big help for us as first time buyers who had previously only rented furnished property, as it meant we didn’t have to find the money for furniture on top of moving expenses. We’ve replaced the sofa and passed a few other bits on to charity but other than that and the addition of our personal bits’n’bobs, the house today remains a lot like how you see it pictured above.

That’s (hopefully) what is about to change and documenting the transformation is the inspiration for this blog.